Soul Jazz Records Presents “Hustle! Reggae Disco (Expanded 2017 Edition)
Soul Jazz Records releases their long-out-of-print album “Hustle! Reggae Disco” in a new expanded 2017 edition which now features five extra tracks. This ground-breaking album features non-stop killer reggae versions of original funk and soul classics in a disco style. Reggae disco updates of seminal classics by Anita Ward “Ring …
Forgotten Treasure: Willie Lindo “Far & Distant” (1974)
A legendary session guitarist as well as producer for such greats as Beres Hammond and Maxi Priest, Willie Lindo is much too bright a gemstone to be left uncovered. I stumbled onto him on one of my YouTube-digging runs with the homie 80rock when we discovered Midnight, a sumptuous piece …
Jah Shaka, the Dub Warrior of South-London
Special Contribution: Andy Williams (Montreal, The Goods) Named after the Zulu Warrior, Jah Shaka‘s real name remains a mystery. He arrived in London in 1956 as a young teenager in a time where racism was at its peak. He always detested the “Babylonian System”, a term used by Rastafarians to sum …
24HOV Mixes – London Edition: NAMEBRANDSOUND
(Photo by Bruno Destombes) NameBrandSound is the brainchild of Broken Beat & UK Soul music pioneers IG Culture (aka TS Repman) and Alex Phountzi. NameBrandSound’s ‘brukworx’ style takes influence from dancehall, jungle, footwork, 2step soul and broken beats emerging with a forward thinking sound far greater than the sum of it’s …
Forgotten Treasure: Ackie “Call Me Rambo” (1986)
Crucial UK Dancehall treasure from the mid-80’s originally released on the Heavyweight label (also a UK based sound system), featuring production by Chester Roots and Ackie on the vocals. You will also recognize a very nice appearance from a Commodore 64 sample at the beginning of the track. Killer Helicopter …
Forgotten Treasure: Ken Parker “How Strong” (1967)
For the past month or so, when I’ve felt like leaving the world and gliding off to another place, this has been my medicine. Ken Parker, Jamaican son of a preacher man, had a string of hits in the late 60s with reggae gurus Coxson Dodd, Duke Reid and Bunny …
Forgotten Treasure: Sir Collins “New Cross Fire Page One” (1981)
Thirty five years ago, on the evening of January 17th, a birthday celebration was held at 439 New Cross Road in southeast London. At some point in the early hours of the 18th, a fire erupted and tragically ended the lives of 13 of the attendees, most of them children. …
Forgotten Treasure: Mikey Dread “African Anthem Dubwise” (1979)
Reggae music’s history is a rich tapestry composed of many essential elements from Jamaica to the U.K and back. Vocalists, producers, riddims, bass, drums,dubplates, electronic equipment (like the Echoplex) and mythological studios and soundsysytems. In the midst of such complexity the selector’s role is often overlooked. Rare is the single …
Coxstone’s Music – The First Recordings 1960-63
via Soul Jazz: Coxsone’s Music is a stunning new 3-CD/two separate double LP (+ free download) collection featuring over two and half hours of early Jamaican proto-ska, rhythm and blues, jazz, rastafari and gospel music – charting the earliest recordings produced by Clement Dodd, in the years before he launched …
Future Classic: Fat Freddy’s Drop “Bays”
Via Fat Freddy’s Drop: Introducing BAYS a 9 track boil up heralding a fresh chapter in Freddys fantastic voyages. BAYS opens with slow burn funk of ‘Wairunga Blues’ journeying through a hybrid of reggae, hi-tek soul and jazz with techno rhythms underpinning Freddy’s signature horns and Joe Dukie’s smooth & …
Mix of the Day: “Inna BamBam Style” Deadly Dragon Sound
via Deadly Dragon Sound: “One of the great things about owning a record store is learning about the music you love through other people’s eyes. Over the past years we have found that throughout South America the Jamaican Styles and riddims that became the basis for modern day Reggaeton are …
Forgotten Treasure: Tony Brutus – Water Pistol (1982)
Here is a track meant to be enjoyed under the scorching sun of any big city in July or August. The kind of heat that makes short tempered, desperate people do bad things. But instead of putting Public Enemy in the tape deck and raising the tension, why not calm …